


Swipe here often?

by vendettadays



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Hospital, Co-workers, F/F, Falling In Love, Identity Reveal, Mutual Pining, Online Dating, Online Relationship, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-27
Updated: 2021-01-27
Packaged: 2021-03-15 14:47:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,893
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28815132
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vendettadays/pseuds/vendettadays
Summary: Sakura joined the dating app six months ago on a drunken whim. Out of fifty messages, only one had made her pause and had sparked a friendship she hadn’t realised she needed.If only friendships were that easy in real life, then maybe she wouldn’t get so annoyed with her work colleague all the time.
Relationships: Haruno Sakura/Karin
Comments: 11
Kudos: 21
Collections: Bulletproof 20/21





	Swipe here often?

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Meatball42](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Meatball42/gifts).



> **Tags:**  
>  Romance - Relationship  
> Characters Know and Dislike Each Other IRL but Fall In Love Anonymously Online

Sakura sighed as she slumped into a chair in the hospital staffroom, relieved to finally be off her feet. She stretched her legs out in front of her, groaning lightly as the muscles in her calves ached. Her right shoulder throbbed and she reached back to rub at the tensed knot of muscle. What she would give for a shoulder massage? Not that there was anyone around willing to give one to her. No, the best she could hope for was to finish her shift, go home, take a hot shower to soothe the tension, then crawl into bed and sleep. Only another hour to go before she could do all of that.

A ping from the pocket of her scrubs had Sakura fumbling tiredly for her phone. She brought the phone to her face and smiled at the name on the notification bubble. Her exhaustion temporarily forgotten, she unlocked her phone quickly and opened the message.

_mb to eat something whn u fin ur shift!_

_i kno u always 4get!_

Sakura bit the inside of her cheek, trying and failing to keep the smile from her face at seeing the hideously butchered words. She tapped a reply and pressed send.

_I will! You too! Please try to eat something with your coffee.  
_

_Your stomach will thank you later.  
_

She laughed at the photo of a sad-looking blueberry muffin with a bite taken out of it. Sakura stared at the long delicate fingers holding the muffin.

_happy?_

_Yes._

_txt me whn u get home?_

Warmth filled Sakura at the question and she quickly replied that she would. She slipped her phone back into her pocket and pressed her hand to her chest, the smile still on her face. The rational part of Sakura knew it was ridiculous to feel this way about someone she hadn’t met in person. She had joined the dating app six months ago on a whim. A very drunken whim. She had downloaded the app somewhere between her seventh glass of champagne at a friend’s wedding and collapsing in a drunken heap in her bed in her hotel room. Alone and sad that she was turning thirty-five soon, still incredibly single, and hadn’t manage to attract a single look from any of the guests. She had been asked to dance once. And that had been from a ten-year old.

She had woken the next morning with over fifty messages of varying quality. Romance was very much dead if people thought the line, ‘swipe here often?’ would make anyone swoon. All that line did was add to her resolute determination to delete the app. She had been about to press delete after opening her tenth message to another unsolicited dick pic, when a message had made her pause.

_hi cherryblossom28_

_gr8 username. i moved 2 konoha 2 mnths ago_

_& lookin 4wrd to cherry blossom season nxt spring._

The message had been so innocuous that Sakura found herself typing and sending a reply before she had realised she had done so.

Six months later and she felt more comfortable talking to K than she did with any of her actual real life friends. It was the anonymity, she had reasoned after one particularly late night spent texting K instead of sleeping. Whatever the reason, she knew more about K than she did about her best friend. She certainly shared more with K, even if she didn’t know how K looked beyond the detailed physical description she had been given.

Then again, it wasn’t like K knew how Sakura looked either. She hadn’t quite found the courage to send a photo of herself and K hadn’t once asked her to. K had made it clear early on that it was up to Sakura what she wanted to share with her.

The door to the staff room banged open making Sakura jump in her seat. She turned to the door and scowled at seeing Karin, the other senior doctor who worked in the Accident and Emergency department with her.

‘Oh, you’re in here,’ said Karin, voice toneless as she shut the door behind her. She threw something into the bin and walked to the coffee machine.

Sakura’s annoyance with the other woman intensified at merely being in the same room. .

’Well, it’s _good_ to see you too,’ said Sakura sarcastically.

Karin rolled her eyes and nudged her red-framed glassed further up her nose. She ignored Sakura and walked to the coffee machine. Her lack of reply only annoyed Sakura further. She huffed and crossed her arm, making her displeasure known.

It had been nearly six months since Karin joined the hospital, and Sakura still hadn’t warmed up to her. She had heard all about Karin from Doctor Tsunade, and the accolades and expertise she would bring to the hospital. It was too bad that her personality sucked.

Sakura snuck a glance at Karin as she stirred her coffee, turning away quickly when Karin looked over her shoulder. The thing was, Sakura had looked forward to working with Karin when she heard she had accepted the job offer. Having another senior doctor made a world of difference for a busy emergency department like Konoha Hospital’s.

From the moment Karin had walked through the hospital’s double doors, she had made such a difference in Sakura’s work life that she had even considered taking a day off or two. Together they had transformed their department into a well-oiled machine. But from the moment Karin had walked into the staff room on her first days, collided into Sakura and poured one of her two takeaway cups of coffee onto Sakura’s clothes, not a single day had gone by where Karin wasn’t a pain in her side.

It didn’t matter how well they worked together. They were still as incompatible as a square block in a circular hole, no matter how seamlessly they moved around each other when there was a crisis. It was too bad really. If it wasn’t for Karin’s personality, well… Sakura shook her head at the thought.

Karin turned and leaned on the cabinets, her coffee cupped between her hands. It was always black, no milk, no sugar. Sakura would know. She had been drenched with it. She also knew Karin sometimes brought it from the coffeeshop in the hospital canteen or made it here.

‘You know it’s bad to drink coffee on an empty stomach.’ Sakura frowned, eyes focused on Karin’s hands wrapped around the mug.

The mug paused on its way to Karin’s mouth. She raised her eyebrow and took an obnoxiously loud slurp of coffee. ‘Why would you care whether I’m drinking coffee on an empty stomach.

‘I don’t,’ replied Sakura, neck growing hot. Irritation simmered inside her chest, warning her that it was time to leave the room before any bickering could start. She got to her feet quickly; the chair legs screeched against the floor. ‘Be ready in thirty minutes for our 10PM handover.’

She left the staffroom without saying goodbye to Karin. It was better that she left in silence and with the last word. She still had less than an hour until she could go home and she was not going to let Karin ruin her mood.

***

Sakura tucked her arm beneath her pillow and picked her phone off her bedside table. She rolled her eyes at K’s reply to the photo of the bowl of soup she had sent half an hour ago. A two letter reply in place of the correct spelling for ‘good’.

K hadn’t replied since, but that was expected. K was a doctor too and had started her shift not long before Sakura had finished. It was one of things that made it so easy for Sakura to talk to her. In the beginning, she had wondered if it was a lie. But K knew too much about the ins-and-outs of a hospital and the pains of being a doctor to make that stuff up. 

But it was the other stuff that Sakura looked forward to. They talked about anything and everything. Sakura would fill K in on her day, on the things that she wished she had done and wished she could do. She shared the things she didn’t easily share with others, not even with Ino. Her fears and dreams, she told K all about them. In return, K had told her about her impulsive decision to move to a new country and city, how annoyed she was for missing cherry blossom season by a month, and her love for the _okonomiyaki_ restaurants that were in abundance in Konoha. 

She shuffled more comfortably in bed and scrolled through her past conversations, re-reading snippets that made her laugh. Sakura paused mid-scroll at a photo of K in a burgundy strapless dress. The angle of the shot hid her face. It was taken in front of a mirror in a dressing room and brought for a wedding that K went to a month ago. Sakura remembered when she had opened the photo for the first time. The air had left her lungs in a breathless rush and she hadn’t been able to reply straight away. Even now, she was a little breathless at how gorgeous K looked in the dress. 

Her phone vibrated in her hand and she jolted, suddenly alert. Her eyes blinked furiously to clear the sleepy fog that had fallen over her. 

_gd nite. speak l8r x_

Sakura smiled and stifled a yawn, thumb poised over her screen’s keyboard. Her eyelids drooped and she fell asleep to thoughts of K in a strapless dress.

***

‘Are you taking any time off in March?’ 

Sakura looked away from the x-ray of a patient’s broken tibia. Karin stood in the gap in the curtains, hand holding the fabric back as she pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose with her other hand. 

‘Sorry?’ 

Karin stepped closer to Sakura. ‘I said if you will be taking any time off in March?’

‘I don’t think so.’ Sakura ignored Karin’s sigh. Apparently that wasn’t the answer she wanted. ‘What day?’ 

‘I want to take either the 27th or 28th of March.’

Sakura didn’t need to check her calendar to know she wouldn’t be taking the 28th off. It was her birthday and every year she spent it working. Her birthday was just like any other day to her. So she might as well work instead. She took her phone from her pocket to check the 27th. That day she wasn’t so sure. 

Her phone unlocked on the dating app, showing K’s last message on screen. She smiled at the wall of messages K had sent her on the latest episode of the TV show they were watching together. A frown appeared between Karin’s brow and Sakura quickly opened her calendar. 

‘27th and 28th should be fine with me.’ 

Karin nodded and turned to leave, only to pause as she reached the curtain that separated them from the rest of the emergency room. ‘I have a question.’

‘Yeah, what is it?’ Sakura asked brusquely, turning back to her x-ray. 

‘What’s a good restaurant to take someone who doesn’t celebrate their birthday?’ 

Sakura blinked, surprised by the question. She had expected Karin to ask her for her medical opinion, not a restaurant recommendation. ‘Oh, um, well I guess…’

‘Nevermind,’ mumbled Karin.

‘Wait!’ The only thing that came to mind was the photo of a grill topped with a cooked okonomiyaki K had sent last night. It was K’s favourite food. ‘How about an okonomiyaki restaurant?’

Karin’s brow dipped into another frown, but she nodded and left Sakura alone with x-ray. Sakura’s eyes followed Karin’s retreating back through the gap in the curtains. That might have been one of the most casual conversations she and Karin had ever had in the time they had worked together.

***

‘She’s not that bad,’ offered Hinata with a kind smile after Sakura finished recounting the email she’d received from Doctor Tsunade.

‘A weekend-long medical conference with Karin? In Suna of all places.’ Sakura groaned into her hand. ‘We would have to get a plane together and spend a whole weekend in each others’ company. What would we even talk about?’

It was going to be torture. The only silver lining was that the conference wasn’t going to be for another few months. Maybe by then she would have come up with a list of safe topics to talk about.

‘Yeah, Hinata's right.’ Ino sipped her coffee and grimaced at the taste. ‘Look, you and Karin have done a really good job with your department. You remember what it used to be like a few years ago?’

‘I know, I know…’ Sakura ran a hand through her pink hair. She knew exactly what it used to be like. Chaos. Triage took forever, patients waited for hours, and everyone was overworked to dangerous levels. She grumbled, ‘it’s just she’s so damn smug about everything!’

It was easy for them. Hinata worked in the Hyūga Eye Unit and despite it being run almost exclusively by her family, they never had any issues with personalities. Ino and her father were consultant psychologists in the hospital’s Clinical Psychology department, and were the perfect father-daughter duo. And Sakura? All she got was Karin and a whole lot of hassle.

‘Come on, relax,’ said Ino, nudging Sakura with her foot. ‘You’ve got, what? Six hours left and you can go home, and forget all about Karin.’

As if summoned by their conversation, Karin walked through the doors and into the canteen. Sakura watched her as she strode across the linoleum floor, grey coat folded over an arm, her heels clicking against the floor as she went straight to the coffee counter.

Right, it was the start of a new shift, which meant she would have to work alongside Karin for the remainder of her work day. Sakura sighed, tired at the thought of already.

‘I never understand why she bothers wearing heels to work.’ Sakura’s gaze followed the line of Karin’s calves and down to the three inch heels of the burgundy shoes she wore. ‘We all change into Crocs.’

Ino and Hinata shared a look that Sakura didn’t know how to interpret.

‘She does look very professional,’ reasoned Hinata. ‘I really like the colour of her shoes.’

‘It goes well with the skirt.’ Ino shared another secret smile with Hinata. ‘Don’t you think so, Sakura?’

Sakura stared at the black pencil skirt Karin wore. The skirt would have hung straight from Sakura’s hips, but on Karin, it hugged her hips and curves in all the right places. So did the tailored silk blouse Karin had chosen today.

She grumbled and reluctantly agreed with Ino, but she still thought it was unnecessary for Karin to look like she was walking a runway whenever she came to work. Professionalism was everything. But even Sakura couldn’t deny that Karin looked good. She watched Karin order and when she finished, she reached into her bag and took out her phone.

The breath in Sakura’s lung froze at the way Karin’s usually hard eyes softened, the corner of her mouth curling into a tender smile at whatever had captured her attention. She wrenched her gaze away, feeling very much like a voyeur in a moment of privacy that was not meant to be shared with her.

‘I’m going to head back,’ said Sakura suddenly. She grabbed her half-finished coffee and rushed away with a quick wave to Ino and Hinata.

The coffee she had drunk sloshed and swirled sickeningly with every hurried step she took. She’d made sure to eat before drinking coffee, but her stomach revolted anyway.

The soft look on Karin’s face lingered in her mind as she made her way along the hospital corridors and Sakura wondered, who exactly it was who could make Karin smile like that.

***

The discomfort from earlier hadn’t left. Sakura went about the rest of her shift with a queasiness in her stomach, running from one consultation to the next as she saw patient after patient. The feeling followed her home and so did Karin’s mysteriously soft smile. It filled her thoughts when all she wanted was to empty her mind and relax at the end of a tiring day. The last thing she wanted was to analyse why she felt the way she did.

Sakura dropped heavily onto her sofa. She tucked her feet beneath her and leaned back against the cushions. Karin had a beautiful smile. It hadn’t even been a proper smile, but her crimson eyes had lit up with so much fondness that it transformed her. It made Sakura wonder if there was anyone who would smile like that to her.

Her phone seemed to burn in her hand. She wondered if K did? Sakura’s heart ached for it to be true. The thought made her want to see K more than ever. She unlocked her phone and brought up the app, thumbs pausing over the keyboard on her screen as she bit her lip. Oh, fuck it. Sakura typed a message and sent it before she could second-guess herself. 

_So…_ _I was thinking…_

_not too hard, might hurt urself_

_Hey!_

Her heart pounded heavily inside her chest as she froze over what she wanted to ask. The fire that had fuelled her moments earlier already doused by her hesitation. She typed, only to delete the words, trying over and over again to ask the question she wanted. Five minutes later, she still hadn’t asked K. Sakura groaned and buried her face in her hands, dropping her phone on the sofa. 

Her phone vibrated and she dared to peek from between her fingers at the message. 

_t's ok. u dnt have to tell me. wheneva ur ready_

‘Why do you have to be so considerate?’ asked Sakura quietly to her phone. She breathed in deep and took a leap. 

_I’m free this Saturday._

_Would you like to meet up?_

Sakura heart leapt at the immediate reply. 

_i wld love to_

***

Sakura spent the night fretting over what to wear. She was going to meet K for the first time and all she owned were work clothes, worn for all of the thirty minutes that it took for her to commute to and from the hospital. With the state of her wardrobe, it made more sense to meet K in her scrubs. It certainly looked better than the jeans that had fit perfectly three years ago, but now felt too snug around her hips and thighs.

By the morning, she still hadn’t thought about a top. In the end she picked a plain red jumper, grabbed her coat, fumbled for her wallet and phone, and hurried out of her apartment. Sakura twisted her hands together and walked briskly, pulse racing with every step that brought her closer to the little café they’d agree to meet for breakfast.

Sakura stopped abruptly at the sight of Karin standing outside the café, head ducked as she looked at her phone. She frowned and walked up to her.

Karin looked up. Her tired face brightened only to dim, expression shutting off as Sakura got closer. There were circles beneath Karin’s eyes and she looked like she was ready to fall asleep on her feet. She must have finished her shift at the hospital not long ago.

‘Karin,’ said Sakura. ‘Shouldn’t you be at home sleeping? You’re working tonight.’

’I’m meeting someone.’ Karin smiled before pursing her mouth tightly. It was the same secret smile as the one from yesterday.

’Oh, what a coincidence.’ Sakura rocked on her feet and wondered if K was smiling like that at the thought of meeting her. ‘I’m also meeting someone.’ She checked her phone and saw she the time. ‘I won’t keep you, I’m late and I don’t want my friend to think I stood her up after six months of messaging.’’

Sakura walked to the door, but Karin’s hand on her wrist stopped her. She looked up at Karin, whose crimson eyes were wide with shock.

‘What?’

‘You’re cherryblossom28, aren’t you?’

‘How did you…’ Sakura trailed off and gasped as realisation hit her. A furious blush rose up her neck and coloured her face at the disbelief on Karin’s face. She shrugged her wrist out of Karin’s hold.

‘Sakura, wait,’ Karin pleaded quietly. ‘Please.’

She shook her head, pink hair flying from side to side, and ran from Karin.

***

For the first half-an-hour since she left Karin outside the café, her phone had pinged constantly. Every message Karin sent went unanswered by her. By the time Sakura got home, her phone had gone silent. She thought Karin had finally got the point. That she didn’t want to talk to her. Then her phone pinged again. One message every hour. She could have turned her phone on silent or deleted the dating app. She didn’t. She couldn’t bring herself to delete the app.

Sakura curled up in bed, knees to her chest, and phone held between her hands as she stared at the messages. Each one asked how she was doing. The same question asked in a variety of different ways and each one more endearing than the last. She couldn’t bear the thought that everything between them had been fake. She closed her eyes against the burn of tears, face scrunching up in an effort to hold it in. The thought broke her heart. 

She had thought, maybe, for once in her life she had found someone who understood her. Who had got to know her for her. Then she had to go and fall— grow to care for _Karin_ of all people. It didn’t matter that she was K or Karin. They were one and the same. The same person who reminded Sakura to eat, who asked her how her day was, who sent her good morning and good night messages. It was Karin who had listened to her fears and had shared her fears in return.

Now that Sakura could put a face to the messages, she couldn't stop thinking about Karin saying those things to her instead. Her phone vibrated in her hand. Another message sent on the hour. She opened her eyes and a shuddering breath left her. 

_Sakura, can we talk? Please._

Oh, god. Correctly spelled words, punctuation and full sentences meant it was serious. It was also one of the few times K — no, Karin — had asked her for something. How could she ignore it?

_Yes.  
_

_Reli? Can we speak in person?_

_Yes. You can come to my apartment now._

She sent her address and dropped her phone on her bed. Leaving her apartment was an effort she couldn’t bear right now. She tugged at her worn Konoha University t-shirt and frayed pyjama bottoms. Whatever. She had already spent six months embarrassing herself to Karin. What was a meeting in her pyjamas going to add? 

Her indifference faded twenty minutes later when her doorbell rang. She scrambled off her bed and ran from her bedroom. She stopped in front of the door and brushed her fingers through her hair, trying to straighten out the bed hair. It probably only made it worse. With her heart thumping furiously inside her chest, she took a deep fortifying breath and opened her door. 

Karin stood outside Sakura’s apartment. A relieved look crossed her expression when Sakura stepped back and she shuffled inside, closing the door behind her. The door closed with a sharp click of the latch. For a woman who dominated each room she walked in, Karin looked small with her shoulders hunched up to her ears, hands shoved deep inside the pockets of her grey, wool coat. 

Sakura floundered, unsure of how she should act in front of Karin. Was she the colleague she didn’t get on with from work? Or was she K, the person she had been messaging for the past six months?

‘D-do you want a coffee?’ asked Sakura. 

‘No, thanks.’ Karin cleared her throat. 

‘Oh.’ Sakura wrapped her arms around herself, fingers digging into her skin at the mess of conflicting feelings that welled up from Karin’s words. Disappointment. Relief. Regret. 

‘I know you hate me, so I’ll say my piece and leave.’

Sakura frowned. ‘I don't hate you.’ 

‘Yes you do, you hate my guts and have since I started.’

Sakura bit down on the inside of her cheek. The smarting pain wasn’t enough to distract her from the crawling shame that crept across her face in a deep flush. Karin was wrong and Sakura needed her to know the truth. ‘I _strongly_ disliked you. I never hated you.’ 

‘It’s fine, you don’t have to explain yourself,’ Karin swallowed, voice tight as she continued, ‘and I know, I’m not who you expected to be, so we can just forget about everything like… like it never happened and get on with our lives again.’

Sakura stared at Karin. She opened her mouth, but it was as if all the air had been sucked from the room and no matter how she tried to force the words out, they lodged themselves like rocks in her throat. 

Karin shrugged and gave a tremulous smile, one that didn’t meet her eyes. It was a world from the smile Sakura had secretly caught a glimpse of that morning. Sakura watched Karin turn to the door. Her vision blurred as an unbearable tightness gripped her chest, and with every breath she took, it only got worse. Something broke inside her at the thought of going back to where she was six months ago. Lonely. Alone. It would be back to her old routine. Work. Home. Then more work. With no one asking how she was. No messages to read as she snuck a peek at her phone during a lull between consultations. It meant waking up in the morning to only the sound of her alarm, no more good mornings or good nights depending on when Karin was on shift. 

_‘No.’_ The word was ground out, hard and loud and past the lump in Sakura’s throat. ‘No.’

Sakura’s expression crumpled like a house of cards. She repeated it again and again, her voice quietened. The strength in her tone draining with every ‘no’, until she could barely hear herself over the breathless sob that left her mouth instead. 

A hand cupped her face gently and Sakura gasped at touch. She pressed into the warmth of the palm against her cheek. She looked up and there was a crease between Karin’s brows, her crimson eyes bright and sad. 

‘Sakura?’ Karin’s throat moved as she swallowed. ‘What do you want from me?’ 

Wasn’t that the million dollar question?

She wanted K, but wanting K meant wanting Karin. Karin who looked like she hadn’t slept since finishing her twelve hour shift this morning. Karin who had arrived at her apartment in less than twenty minutes, clothes rumpled and hair in disarray. It was nothing like the calm and collected woman she worked with. 

She felt the sweep of Karin’s thumb across her cheekbone, wiping away tears that Sakura hadn’t even realised had escaped. Everything about Karin now was more than the colleague she usually worked with. This was the woman who would see a slice of black forest cake and send a photo of it to her, just because she had once said it was her favourite food. 

So what did she want?

‘The Karin I saw everyday was only a veneer of who I thought you were, but that’s because I never made the effort to know you,’ confessed Sakura. ‘You’re still the same person who texted me everyday, kept me company, cared for me…’ She trailed off, biting down on her trembling lip. She reached up and held onto Karin’s wrist, reassured by the knowledge that Karin couldn’t disappear, not without breaking their contact. ‘You made me feel loved.’ 

Karin’s shoulders drooped with a sigh. She leaned forward and rested her forehead against Sakura’s. Her lips were pressed in a firm line. An expression Sakura had seen on her before. It was the same one Karin wore when she wanted to say something, normally to protest against Sakura’s ideas, but chose to withhold it instead. 

‘Ask,’ Sakura whispered, gaze flitting to Karin’s mouth. 

‘Can I—’ The rest of Karin’s question was lost to the gentle pressure of Sakura’s lips against her own. 

Sakura slid her hands through Karin’s long hair and coaxed her closer, brushing her fingertips against the nape of Karin’s neck. She poured all she felt into the kiss. The longing she felt for K and all that was associated with her. The confused, but intensifying yearning for Karin for being one and the same as K. She gasped when Karin kissed back, earnest and eager with both hands cupping her face.

Sakura’s legs threatened to give out at the nip of Karin’s teeth against her bottom lip. She pulled back, breaking the kiss reluctantly, before she melted to the floor.

‘Yes,’ replied Sakura breathlessly.

‘W-what?’

She smiled against Karin’s mouth. ‘My answer to your question.’

‘You don’t even know what I was going to ask?’

Sakura stepped backwards and pulled Karin by the lapels of her coat, heart fluttering at the awestruck gleam in those eyes and the wide, uninhibited smile on Karin’s face.

‘It doesn’t matter. My answer is yes.’


End file.
